The doctor eventually offered to give her medicine for the dizziness, but that wasn’t good enough for Gleadell — she wanted to know what was causing it. “He said, ‘Oh well I don’t think we’ll ever get to the bottom of what’s causing it.’ He did say to me that maybe if I stopped thinking about the dizziness I’d stop feeling so dizzy,” she added. “He’s also looked at my cervix several times and told me that looked normal when there was a great big tumour on it.” Doctors at the hospital reassured her at the time that everything was fine, but she later learned that watery discharge can be a symptom of cervical cancer. “The first thing on my mind was my boys, my poor boys. I was told it was curable with chemo and radiation and I commenced 12 weeks of this harsh treatment. While on my three month wait I noticed a lump in my neck — more tests and I was told the cancer was still there and has spread and was now incurable but they could offer me palliative care,” she wrote on her GoFundMe page. “I left the hospital determined to do what I could to fight this and be with my boys for as long as I can be, if you look at the statistics for cervical cancer they are very bleak but I am determined not to be a statistic.” She went through more radiotherapy and was preparing to start chemo in the hopes of buying more time. Unfortunately, she then suffered bleeding complications which made chemo no longer an option. Then, her family rallied to raise funds for an experimental immunotherapy treatment in London, which Gleadell shared at the time as being the only option she had left to get any extra time or “a miracle.” “My children have always been aware that I have cancer but I’ve had to explain to them that it’s very serious and there is a big chance I could die,” she told the Sun. As her family cherishes the time they had with Gleadell, her story is reminding new moms to trust their gut and continue speaking up if something doesn’t feel right. According to Mayo Clinic, symptoms of cervical cancer include spotting, watery or bloody discharge that may have a foul smell, and pelvic pain.
